A Different Beast
by Konsui's Little Brother
Summary: Trapped in Beast Boy's mind, the only way for Raven to get out is to go through the different visions of his past, his present, and his would-be's. Writing style changes during chapter 3, due to re-picking the story up after a year.
1. Chapter 1

It was all in her head, it had to be. Afte all, she couldn't really be trapped in Beast Boy's mind, right? Even if that was where all of her common sense was telling her she was. It couldn't be possible, and yet, something inside of Raven told her that it was true.

It was odd really because the last 'real' thing that Raven remembered doing was walking into Beast Boy's room, it was her turn to rouse him for training, and she tripped over something. She wasn't quite sure what had tripped her though because when she looked up she wasn't in the mess that Beast Boy called a room.

She wasn't really sure what to call where she was except...Space. Lots and lots of empty space, black empty space, and she was just sort of floating in it. The darkness wasn't cold like one would expect a vass empty space to be, rather, it was almost unbarably hot.

Looking around her, around the empty blackness, she noticed something that hadn't been there before. A small, shape in the distance. Or, as she found out after a few steps, the not so distance. It was like there was no actual concept of space here, but then her walking on air should have been an explanation of that.

The 'shape' stayed where it was, hunkered down in the darkness and partially hidden by a non-existant shadow. Raven took a few steps towards it, moving carefully around to its front-end, and bent forewards slightely.

It was a wolf, with long dark green fur, its head resting on its fore-paws in a truly sorrowful expression. The wolf lifted its head up, dark green eyes locking with Raven's. And then it spoke.

**"He left. Lost in his memories, fleeing from what he has to face in reality. He's losing his mind, his control, his lock, and his key."**

Raven knelt down, on what she still didn't know, and put one hand by the wolfs head. "You mean Beast Boy don't you? This is his mind-scape, isn't it?" The wolf looked up at her, its head barely lifting from its paws and it expression still one of deep sadness.

**"Questions, questions, questions."** It drawled in that low voice. **"You have a mind on you, answer them yourself. In there."** It lifted its muzzle and nudged its nose towards a spot over Raven's shoulder, away from where she had originally woke up at.

Raven stood up and took a few steps towards where the wolf had motioned to. Three steps and she was suddenly standing at the edge of the darkness, which really shouldn't have been possible, and staring into a pit of swirling of colors. The Pit, which is what Raven decided to call it for now, seemed to be pulsing and with each pulse the colors would flash and dim and change.

She turned around, not taking a step for fear that she wouldn't find the Pit again, only to find the wolf was standing right in front of her. There was a large pulse from below them, Raven idly wondered why she hadn't felt it earlier, and a small glow appeared from the Pit. It was only there for a second before another pulse changed the colors but Raven saw it, large scars littering the wolfs body. Large bald patches and curving, gray lines marred what would most likely have been a beautiful creatures body and its once dark green fur had streaks of gray in it.

**"He went to battle himself but to do so he must go through his past, his present, and his what-could-be's. And you can bring him back. That is, if you go in after him and face what he has faced and what he will face again." **The wolf looked up at Raven, its eyes still filled with sorrow, and wagged its tail once. **"Will you go after him? Or will you let him be beaten down by all he has ever known?"**


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Sorry for the wait! I really don't have any excuse for not writing this sooner. I hope that I still have a few people willing to read this story though...

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Raven had leapt into the Pit without another question, not like the wolf would have answered it anyway, and thinking about it now she realized that is was a really stupid idea.

She had fallen for a few seconds, not as quickly as one would think, and then she had just...stopped. She had been hanging in the middle of the darkness, with swirling colors pulsing around her, for what seemed like an eternity when all of a sudden she was engulfed in a blob of dark blue.

Her vision was engulfed in the color and her whole body seemed to pulse in time with the other color blobs. It was the oddest feeling really, to move but not move, and it wasn't the least bit enjoyable. Not that any of this was because, quite frankley, Raven really just wanted to go back to the Tower and meditate for awhile. Even a training session would have been better than this. What ever this was.

The pulsing was only there for a moment, as was the change in her vision, before everything around her changed. She was no longer floating in the Pit, in fact there was no sign that she had ever been in the pit, but aside from that little detail she had no idea where she was.

The blackness had dissapeared completely, replaced instead by a stark and blinding white. Raven shaded her eyes with a hand, which was a failed attempt at getting rid fo the white that was dancing in front of her vision, and ended up just clenching her eyes shut.

When she managed to pry her eyes open again, all trace of The Pit -blinding light and floating colors included- had dissapeared and she found herself standing in what could only be described as a desert-like plain.

The plain, filled with sparse trees and rocks and lizards, was only there for a second. Raven blinked and when she opened her eyes, the vacant landscape had changed again.

She found herself standing in the middle of a village. The buildings appeared to be made out of dried reeds and other branches, all of which had been woven together to form huts in varying sizes. There was a larger hut in the center of the village. It was towards this village that a small boy was running.

The boy was young, probably no more than five or six, with tousled brown hair. He had something small clutched in his arms, an animal of some sort, and was calling something. He had an odd accent, one that she knew she'd heard before but couldn't quite place, so it took her a few moments to figure out what he was saying.

Not that knowing he was crying 'tawapa' made much difference. She had no idea what a 'tawapa' was or if it was the thing that he was carrying. For all she knew, he could have been asking for a bannana!

**"Do you recognize him?"**

Raven spun around so that she was facing behind her, expecting to see the scarred wolf again, only to find that the only thing there was an aged tree. "Who's speaking?" She found herself demanding. There was a laugh then, shrill and high-pitched like whatever was laughing shouldn't have been making that noise, before a rustling in the branches caught her attention.

**"Up here, Raven-child!"** The voice barked at her. It was only then that she realized how different from the voice of the wolf it was. The new voice was shrill and throaty, sounding very much like someone with a sore throat, while the voice of the wolf had been much smoother and deeper.

Taking a step away from the tree, Raven tilted her head up to start scanning the branches. Almost immiediatly her eyes were drawn to a large, dark green, hawk. Like the wolf, the hawk had an intelligiant look to it's sharp eyes.

"Where am I?" She figured that asking the creature who it was would be useless. If it was anything like the wolf, it wouldn't want to answer a lot of her questions and there was no point in asking something that she didn't need to know.

Unfortunatly for her, it still seemed to be the wrong question. The hawk tilted it's head slightly and gave her a critical look. When it did, the feathers on his neck parted and showed off a deep scar running down the creatures throat towards its chest. **"Answer me first, Raven-child! Do you recognize him?"**

Raven frowned slightly at the bird before turning back to the village. The young boy was handing whatever it had been holding to a much older man now. The man was wearing a long, brillantly colored, robe made out of what looked like animal pelts. Dark grey and brown feathers were hooked into his greying hair, both of which stood out in stark contrast to the dark brown of his skin.

The older man's face creased into a frown as he took the bundle from the child. As they passed it between each other, she got a clear view of what it was. A small dingo pup. It's light brown fur was matted down with dried on blood and she could hear a whimper escape its throat as it was jostled.

"Tawapa! Hunte's shot it. Can you help it? Please?" The boy had a look of true concern for the tiny beast on his face as he handed the pup to the older man.

The look sparked something in Raven's mind, far and distant, and she found herself taking a step foreward so that she could see the boys face better. The light green eyes, filled with sadness for the creature, were what actually brought the image to her mind though. An image of light green eyes on a dark green face, standing over her after she'd been hit in a battle, and asking if she was okay. "Is that...That's Beast Boy?"

**"It was once. A long time ago. He is not that way any more though, I'm surprised that you knew it was him Raven-child."** The bird was silent for a moment after that, still for a few seconds, before it spread it's wings and flew down to perch on Raven's shoulder instead.

"It doesn't look anything like him now. What happened?" Raven turned her head slightly so that she could see the bird now perched on her shoulder.

**"What happened? He gained his powers! He wasn't born that way, Raven-child." **The bird squawked at her.

Raven couldn't help but think that there was a sense of distaste in his words then, like she should have known that with out asking. "Oh...So...Why am I here?"

**"I don't know. Why ****are**** you here, Raven-child? I'm not in your mind so I wouldn't know! But I know what you're going to have to do now that you're here! Sit and watch! Watch what happened to the care-free child you see now!"**

And then, just as the bird finished speaking, the scene started to ripple. The colors started to merge together and then there was another flash of white and, when she was able to open her eyes again, she was staring at a completely different scene from the one before.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Because, no matter how long it takes to update a story or how big of a style change my writing has gone through, I will never abandon a story.

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When Raven opened her eyes, she was greeted by the sight of a blazing fire. The flames licked at the walls of the huts, spreading to the trees and growth of the nearby jungle, and the few that weren't on fire seemed to have crumpled from other reasons. Smoke filled the air, blocking out the sky that had been a bright blue last time she looked.

People were screaming.

Raven had already taken a few steps into the middle of the burning village, mouth open and ready to recitate her chant, when she remembered that she wasn't someplace she could affect. Her powers wouldn't work while she was in Beast Boy's mind. Not for something like this.

A woman screamed as embers flicked onto her back. She had a small child in her arms, bundled up in a swath of brown fabric, and his wails seemed to rival hers.

There was a man, shouting in a language that she didn't understand a few feet from where she was standing. A blood-soaked spear was in one hand, the other hand motioning towards the forest.

A young girl tripped as she ran from her home. Her head struck a rock when she fell. She didn't get back up.

**"Horrible. Isn't it?"**

Raven wasn't as surpised as she was before when the voice spoke this time. It was slow and warm sounding, a perfect contradiction to the scene that surrounded her. An absent nod was her answer as she glanced around to find the speaker.

It was just by chance that she happened to glance down, eyes following a young boy as he stooped to grab a handful of rocks and hurl them towards the darkness of the jungle. A large, dark green tortiosse was settled next to one of the only buildings not burning. In the light that the flames gave off, Raven could just make out the swath of scars that covered its shell.

"What's going on?" Raven didn't take her eyes off of the mayham infront of her when she spoke.

There were people running out of the jungle and into the village now. Men dressed in dark cloths and carrying guns. The young boy that she'd been watching threw one of his rocks towards them. A bullet to the shoulder was what he got in return.

**"A massacre. A hunt. An invasion. Call it whichever you want. They are all the same, really." **The tortiesse' voice sounded so sad, filled with guilt and sorrow, and Raven found herself turning away from the scene of blood-shed in front of her to look at him instead.

"Can't you be any more clear? I just want to know what's going on! Why are these people here?" Actually, there were a lot of things that that she wanted to know. Like why this was in Beast Boy's mind. Where the shape-shifter was at would be nice too, but she had a feeling that niether of those questions would be answered even if she asked.

There was a moment of silence, save the scene behind her, before the tortiouse even looked back up at her. **"These people. They are here to hunt. For Garfield. Just watch. Maybe you will understand things a little better."**

So Raven turned her eyes back to the burning village. To the people dieing and screaming and _fighting_ as men poured in and started to fire their guns. Even the elderly, who were trying to flee in the other direction, were shot down. In all that chaos, she didn't know how her eyes were drawn to the two figures crouched at the far end of the village.

"But I don't want to leave you, Tawapa!" Even though Raven couldn't see the faces of the figures, she could recognize that voice.

Beast Boy.

And that meant that the other shadowed figure was Tawapa, the elderly man she had seen in the vision before this one.

"Garfield. Listen to me." Tawapa put one hand on the smaller shoulder of the boy in front of him. "I cannot allow you to stay here. These people will hurt you very badly if they catch you. I promised your parents that I would keep you safe, yes?"

The smaller form of Beast Boy nodded and Raven watched as his shoulders suddenly slumped down. "Yes."

"Then listen to me now. Hide in the jungle and I will find you when it is safe." A pause. "I promise that I will not leave you out there, child."

There was a shout from a hut a few feet away from where Raven stood. In horror, she watched as a man waved his hand and pointed over towards where Tawapa and Beast Boy were standing.

The young form of Beast Boy, whom her ming supplied was only seven, nodded. Quickly, he wrapped his arms around the taller man before turning and bolting into the dense growth of the jungle.

The moment he'd dissapeared, branches still swinging where he'd pushed through them, a group of three men sprinted in his direction. One of them was carrying a light branch, the other two guns.

Raven felt her stomach start to clench. Beside her the torteisse called her name. **"Do not look away. Watch. It will answer your questions."**

The burliest of the three was stopped by Tawapa. A large stick had been grabbed from the ground next to him and met with the poacher, again Raven didn't know why she knew that's what they were, knocking the man backwards; the other two kept going into a jungle.

A look of fury crossed the poachers face. For a moment, a split second that seemed so much longer than it really was, both he and Tawapa faced each other off. A single swipe was all that was needed to end the stand off, though.

Niether side walked away.

Raven's world started to spin the moment that Tawapa started to scream; fire spreading up his body, licking at clothes and skin alike. In a flailing motion the branch the chieftian had been clutching was brought down upon the poachers head.

Both men fell to the ground.

Tawapa was the only one screaming.


End file.
